A Manifesto Stub

Everyone needs access to information, not just those of us with good vision, full mobility, high level language skills and shiny new computers.

Notebook skirt

I dreamed this idea a couple nights ago: a skirt made almost entirely of those colourful, spiral bound notebooks. I say almost because it would need some sort of structure to hold the books together, as well as a waistband. It would, of course, be horrendously uncomfortable, but I'm really picturing it as more of an art piece than an actual garment.

Flamebot

I've been thinking a lot about artificial intelligence lately. It's super fun to play with helper bots on various websites (Anna at IKEA, for example). It occurred to me that a surefire way to get an AI to pass the Turing test, at least if it's talking to people used to the internet, is to create a Flamebot. Essentially, an AI that acts like a troll. It might not be identified as intelligent, but that wouldn't stop it from being mistaken for a lot of humans who hide behind their computers and make inane or rude comments. It doesn't even need to be coherent to be thoroughly entertaining.

Grocery Cart People

It would take far too long to explain what sort of article this was drawn to go with. Instead, I'll just show you the illustration, sans explanation.

Burning book

Below: An illustration I did for an article about Vladimir Nabokov's last, unfinished book.

A very dapper decal

Forthcoming: a decal depicting this man. I can't decide yet whether he should retain his line art glory or become a solid silhouette. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Sketch people

I'm in a real silhouettes of people mood right now. That's a good thing, because I'm supposed to be doing some sketchy drawings of people for a conference. So, here's draft one of some sketchy purple people. While they aren't strictly silhouettes, they fulfill my urge to draw un-detailed people.

On Agency

Agency is a double edged sword: I have the power to decide for myself. The only catch is that I have to decide for myself.

Barrel of hair clips

Quick idea, as found in my sketch book this morning (I don't remember writing it down, but I'm clearly the one who wrote it): Barrel of hair clips. i want to make hair clips with Barrel of Monkeys monkeys on them. Now I just need to get my hands on a Barrel of Monkeys. Pictures when the clips are ready.

Cyclist pants

Fact: most cyclists cinch or roll one leg of their pants so that it won't get caught in the bike chain.
Logical conclusion: Make a pair of pants with one leg shorter than the other.

How to be lazy in the city

I've realized that when I live in big cities, there are far more ways to be lazy than when I live in small ones. Without further ado, method number one for being lazy in a big city.

Don't dry your hair. If you take the subway to work or school, you'll never need to blowdry your hair again. Towel it dry a little, so that you don't drip on others, but there's no need to finish the job. Instead, just stand under the vent in the subway car. There's that spot near the doors, where the ceiling has a great big round vent. On dry hair, it has the effect of mussing. On wet hair, however, it's super handy. If your subway trip is any distance, you'll get your hair blowdried, without running up your own electricity bill or wasting time. Huzzah!

Attention = Equity

My clever insight for today: Attention is contemporary equity.
It's fun to think about and it makes a great soundbite.

Evolution and personal grooming

Every time you leave the house without removing stray eyebrow hairs, you admit that you are descended from apes.

A more attractive smoke detector

As far as I know, all smoke detectors are off-white. Presumably they're off-white because most ceilings are off-white. What if I don't have an off-white ceiling? You're not supposed to paint a smoke detector, so how do you get a smoke detector that matches a colourful ceiling? I propose smoke detectors in various colours. It's not difficult to just do the plastic in a colour other than boring off-white. I know it isn't practical to make smoke detectors in every colour that a ceiling could conceivably be, but I for one wouldn't mind having a turquoise smoke detector. It might make my off-white ceiling a little more interesting.

Good is defined by bad

So often, in real life and in all our media, you hear that no one feels like they're in a real romantic relationship until they've had a fight with their partner. It's not real until a hole has been poked in the good by the bad. Reality seems to necessitate negativity.

Thought Bubbles

I want to make some very small, very low power, sculptural computers. They only need to be able to access wifi networks and browse websites (I'm thinking Wikimedia Commons and Google image search). They very nearly qualify as wearable computers. They're shaped like thought bubbles and are worn sticking up from some kind of hat or other person to computer interface. The idea is that the wearer would be able to grab an image from the internet and display it on their thought bubble screen. It would give the adorable illusion of being in a comic book, and it would give others a little insight into the thoughts of the wearer. Neat.

The whiteboard is a metaphor

I think that I may be too exacting for my own good. Even so, I feel that it is necessary to mention that the "whiteboard" tag on this very blog is not entirely literal. It is in fact partially metaphorical. Things that are tagged with the word "whiteboard" may never have actually made it to my whiteboard-o'-clever-ideas. They may come straight from my sketchbook, or a scrap of paper, or some such thing. But they are things that belong on the whiteboard. That's why they get the tag.

Racing stripes

I've been thinking lately about what could be potentially the most awesome thing ever. I want to paint racing stripes on buildings. I think that it would be delightfully incongruous to see go faster stripes on something that can't possibly move. It would have to be easily removable paint, of course. No point in doing damage.

Nothing is perfect, but many things are good enough.

I keep a whiteboard in my front hallway. I often get tiny stubs of ideas, little soundbites, that need to be documented before I forget them. Those stubs often end up on scraps of paper, random pages of my sketch book, and generally in difficult to find places. The purpose of the whiteboard is to aggregate the stubs so that I can actually find them when I'm ready to turn those little ideas into bigger projects. Yesterday, on the whiteboard, I wrote the words "Nothing is perfect, but many things are good enough." I like that statement. It sounds pithy. It shows good use of rhetoric. I'm troubled by it, though. It bothers me, as an inveterate perfectionist, to be embracing the "good enough." Should we reconcile ourselves to a world of "good enough?" After all, the quest for perfection leads to so much heartache. At the same time, we need to be able to dream. I'm wondering if the realism of my "good enough" statement is productive or not. Is it actually good to be able to settle? Is it worse to aim for perfection and fail often than to aim for good but never get the lift provided by actually attaining perfection? Is "good enough" good enough?